Thread: maple, maple, or MAPLE

Around here (western NY), it seems like every time someone claims to have some "Hard Maple", it turns out to be silver. I've learned this the hard way (no pun intended), and now that I've got a year of scavenging under my belt, I'm realizing that most of the maple I picked up last year was of the softer variety. Just last week, I responded to a Craigslist ad for "hard maple", only to find fifteen feet of silver log on the ground in this guy's back yard. I took it anyways (one good thing about silver is it splits nice with the Fiskars if the hydraulic is down), but I'm still looking for my first haul of the elusive hard/sugar maple. I got some norway maple a few weeks ago and that seemed a bit harder than the silver, but how about posting some pics comparing maple (silver, norway,red, swamp, whatever you want to call it) with MAPLE? Call it a maple primer for newbies.

No pics, but in my experiances Red (soft) Maple is every bit as good as Sugar (hard) Maple in btu output and burning qualities . Not sure if I've ever cut any Silver Maple .

I don't think I have seen much of Silver Maple up here but I am sure I have cut it before. Do you have any pics of the Silver Maple that you cut up ?

I can't tell the difference between any of the maple wood I get. It all has the same factor when I go to get it...FREEEEEEEEE!

On the serious side of things, sugar maple is going to have bark that looks a lot like locust. The silver and norway are pretty similar to the point that most people confuse one for the other. As long as the price tag is right, keep grabbing and processing cause that beats the bat snot out of freezing come snow time!

Originally Posted by sw18x

Around here (western NY), it seems like every time someone claims to have some "Hard Maple", it turns out to be silver. I've learned this the hard way (no pun intended), and now that I've got a year of scavenging under my belt, I'm realizing that most of the maple I picked up last year was of the softer variety. Just last week, I responded to a Craigslist ad for "hard maple", only to find fifteen feet of silver log on the ground in this guy's back yard. I took it anyways (one good thing about silver is it splits nice with the Fiskars if the hydraulic is down), but I'm still looking for my first haul of the elusive hard/sugar maple. I got some norway maple a few weeks ago and that seemed a bit harder than the silver, but how about posting some pics comparing maple (silver, norway,red, swamp, whatever you want to call it) with MAPLE? Call it a maple primer for newbies.

If anyone near you does maple sugaring, go over there and look at the trees they tap.

Silver Maple And Norway are miles apart as far as looks both in leaves and bark. Norway has a large leaf with short "fingers" and a silver maple has a small leaf with long "fingers". Norway Maple has a dark, tight lattice bark that is fairly thick while the silver maple has a thinner bark that looks as though it is peeling. Sugar maple has the large short fingered leaf with a thin silverish bark. It isn't as "peely" as the silver. When you pick a piece up you can tell the difference. I would say Norway and Sugar are on par with each other. Silver is quite a bit less dense but still worth gathering IMO

There are different Reds too. Swamp red maple is more like silver maple but there is a popular "crimson king" maple that is more like a Norway.

Silver


Norway


Sugar


The bark on the silver and sugar are somewhat similar but the silver is more layered and multicolored. The leaf will give it away. The more dense maples tend to have the larger "short fingered" leaves. Of course there are lots of different types of maples other than these three, but they all burn nice for me.

Originally Posted by Streblerm

Silver Maple And Norway are miles apart as far as looks both in leaves and bark. Norway has a large leaf with short "fingers" and a silver maple has a small leaf with long "fingers". Norway Maple has a dark, tight lattice bark that is fairly thick while the silver maple has a thinner bark that looks as though it is peeling. Sugar maple has the large short fingered leaf with a thin silverish bark. It isn't as "peely" as the silver. When you pick a piece up you can tell the difference. I would say Norway and Sugar are on par with each other. Silver is quite a bit less dense but still worth gathering IMO

There are different Reds too. Swamp red maple is more like silver maple but there is a popular "crimson king" maple that is more like a Norway.

Silver


Norway


Sugar


The bark on the silver and sugar are somewhat similar but the silver is more layered and multicolored. The leaf will give it away. The more dense maples tend to have the larger "short fingered" leaves. Of course there are lots of different types of maples other than these three, but they all burn nice for me.

Thanks for the information,



Shane

Originally Posted by zogger

If anyone near you does maple sugaring, go over there and look at the trees they tap.

Someone that does maple sugaring like myself can easily tell you how to identify the different maples by looking at the bark. I don't have any silvers or norways in my woods but I have plenty of sugars and reds. Reds can have smooth, rough like a sugar maple or shag like a hickory bark on them.

Around here 90% of the maples are of the Norway variety. If you think for a second that Norway maple should be turned down you are .

Good information. Rep sent!

Nice pics Streblerm!

silver12 1.jpgSilver 12 3.jpglocust 2012.jpgnorway.jpg

I agree that silver maple bark can sometimes look like locust - for example, I included a pic of some honey locust I snagged earlier this spring, and it's a good comparison. Of course, get below the bark and it's night and day. I've also found that with silver maple, less mature branches often have a smoother, light gray bark (maple pic 3) and for me that's a dead giveaway. Wondering if that's also the case with sugar maple?

Not sure I've ever come across red maple, unless some of the silver I've hauled was actually red. I know some people turn their nose up at silver maple for burning purposes but like I said, it sure splits nice! I can't speak from experience because we've got an OWB so I burn all kinds of wood, but next year we're probably getting an indoor stove and I'm setting aside a bunch of my silver to mix in with harder woods. The harder stuff is tough to come by unless you're willing to pay for it, so I'm hoping the silver will work well indoors.

Originally Posted by sw18x

Nice pics Streblerm!

silver12 1.jpgSilver 12 3.jpglocust 2012.jpgnorway.jpg

I agree that silver maple bark can sometimes look like locust - for example, I included a pic of some honey locust I snagged earlier this spring, and it's a good comparison. Of course, get below the bark and it's night and day. I've also found that with silver maple, less mature branches often have a smoother, light gray bark (maple pic 3) and for me that's a dead giveaway. Wondering if that's also the case with sugar maple?

Not sure I've ever come across red maple, unless some of the silver I've hauled was actually red. I know some people turn their nose up at silver maple for burning purposes but like I said, it sure splits nice! I can't speak from experience because we've got an OWB so I burn all kinds of wood, but next year we're probably getting an indoor stove and I'm setting aside a bunch of my silver to mix in with harder woods. The harder stuff is tough to come by unless you're willing to pay for it, so I'm hoping the silver will work well indoors.

How do those type of woods split ? They look like they split fairly easy.



Shane

Originally Posted by sw18x

Nice pics Streblerm!

silver12 1.jpgSilver 12 3.jpglocust 2012.jpgnorway.jpg

I agree that silver maple bark can sometimes look like locust - for example, I included a pic of some honey locust I snagged earlier this spring, and it's a good comparison. Of course, get below the bark and it's night and day. I've also found that with silver maple, less mature branches often have a smoother, light gray bark (maple pic 3) and for me that's a dead giveaway. Wondering if that's also the case with sugar maple?

Not sure I've ever come across red maple, unless some of the silver I've hauled was actually red. I know some people turn their nose up at silver maple for burning purposes but like I said, it sure splits nice! I can't speak from experience because we've got an OWB so I burn all kinds of wood, but next year we're probably getting an indoor stove and I'm setting aside a bunch of my silver to mix in with harder woods. The harder stuff is tough to come by unless you're willing to pay for it, so I'm hoping the silver will work well indoors.

Im going to say with about 95% accuracy that is NOT honey locust. Also, honey locust looks nothing like silver maple, inside or out

Silver maple seasons fairly quickly, burns good but moderately quick with decent heat but not a lot of coals fair amount of ash, good stuff for early and late season. beats poplar,cotton, box elder and similar. River Birch would be a close comparison around here, do not get much birch but a lot of silver, just takes about twice as much for a season vs oak ,sugar,hickory ect.

It's locust. "Domesticated", not the thorny variety. A lot of people around here have it growing in their yards, and never see a thorn out of it. Here's another pic, compare it to some honey locust 2012 b.jpglocust 2012 c.jpglocust 2011 a.jpglocust 2011 b.jpglocust I picked up last year. I was onsite when both trees came down. Funny thing is, the section of locust I posted a pic of earlier does have a different bark pattern than these pics here, but it all came from the same tree.

But hmmm...maybe silver maple bark doesn't bear that much resemblance (you got me thinking so I went out to the woodpile and compared). One thing I always see on honey locust is the little horizontal striations on the bark that I never see on silver maple. Also that darker, purplish hue that always reminds me of the cherry tree we had growing in our yard when I was a kid.